Klaus-Dieter Mathes, Head of the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, granted an interview to Marcus Perman and Alex Gardner @ buddha-nature.tsadra.org on April 24, 2018. The discussion is almost an hour long and ranges from Klaus' personal interest in buddha-nature teachings to his ongoing and detailed research projects on the subject. Mathes discusses buddha-nature and the key ideas behind it, the controversies it generates, and some of the related Buddhist philosophy in comparative perspective.
Listen or Download the Whole Interview
Clips from the Interview
| Buddha-nature has controversial points. | |
|---|---|
| Do you accept buddhahood or not? | |
| Mathes talks about reification and two approaches in the Karma Kagyu Tradition. | |
| Mystic comes from a word that means to close ones eyes, but in Buddhism you are opening your eyes. | |
| Different approaches to buddha-nature—the debates are alive and well in contemporary Tibetan Buddhist communities. |
